Bangladesh mulls to sue NY Fed

Bangladesh is considering filing a lawsuit against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York over hacking of Bangladesh Bank’s $ 81 million reserve from the NY Fed.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith dropped a broad hint at suing the Federal Reserve while speaking with reporters on Wednesday, a day after the Philippines’ RCBC Bank claimed that Bangladesh has no case against it over the biggest ever money heist from the US Fed.

In February this year, unidentified cyber criminals attempted to steal $1 billion from Bangladesh Bank's account with the Fed.

They, however, managed to wire $81 million to four accounts with RCBC branch in Manila, capital of the Philippines.

The money trail was lost as most of it was laundered through casinos. However, about $15 million has been recovered from a casino junket operator and returned to Bangladesh.

Amid Dhaka’s negotiations with Manila to recover the rest of the stolen money, the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) said on Tuesday it is not liable to compensate Bangladesh, according to a news agency. – bz

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